A yawning gap the government is looking to plug is the expansive and fast-growing digital economy. Singapore’s import of services rose meteorically from S$105 billion in 2006 to S$212.4 billion by 2015.

Will GST registration of overseas vendors providing digital services, level the playing field? Currently, only local sellers are required to charge 7% GST but not overseas sellers.

The additional tax revenue to the Government could potentially be substantial in view of the exponential growth in e-commerce.

However, to consumers, this may translate to an increase in 7% on all purchases of these digitised goods from overseas sellers.